Reality: It’s a lot easier and more fun than most of the careers and businesses you can do. But it isn’t really easy. To paraphrase Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own, if it was THAT easy, EVERYBODY would be doing it.

Myth #2: It’s the lazy man’s way to riches — no work.

Reality: Because online marketing generates passive income, it is much less work than many other businesses ONCE IT GETS GOING.

But it takes an enormous amount of work to get it set up and started at the beginning.

Myth #3: You’ll make a million dollars within 12 months.

Reality: Maybe you will. Most of us don’t.

“But Bob, what about all those Internet marketing promoters whose online ads SAY they are making a zillion dollars a week?”

To quote my friend Fred Gleeck: “The only numbers you can really know and trust are your own.”

Am I saying that perhaps some of these promoters exaggerate their success?

I don’t really know HOW much money they make. And neither do you. So I follow Fred’s dictum and you should too.

Now, do you agree with the above?

What has been your experience and degree of satisfaction with the “Get rich on the Internet” programs you’ve purchased and conferences you’ve attended?

Any other Internet marketing myths or lies you’d like to puncture here?

On 5/15/09, Susanna K. Hutcheson said on this blog that copywriting is a skill that takes many decades of learning and doing before one is truly a master at it.

On the other hand, many of the superstars in Internet marketing — a key skill of which is writing (of both copy and content) — are barely out of diapers.

Which would lead one to conclude that copywriting is fairly easy and can be learned rather quickly.

I am increasingly ambivalent about this question.

At times, I read copy by the top pros (Clayton Makepeace, Frank Joseph) that dazzles me and turns me green with envy — and I conclude that copywriting is a skill that, after 3 decades, I am just starting to get the hang of (and that I have so long to go in my training!).

On the other hand, I have also seen writing from younger folks that has me pretty damned impressed (and also some that makes me cringe, which I almost never see from the masters).

So what’s the truth here?

A–Susanna is right: it takes decades to master the skill of copywriting.

B–Copywriting is easy. Any idiot can do it.

C–Copywriting is a skill that can be learned. Yes, it takes practice. But it’s not brain surgery.